Queen Mary's Dolls' House Library Centenary

New little books, a book about the library, and Sir Edwin Lutyens

Elizabeth Clark Ashby. (2024). The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. University of Chicago Press.

Edwardian Library in Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House

Created between 1921 and 1924, the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is one of the most beautiful and famous dollhouses in the world. The house was meticulously furnished, meant to serve as a representation of a real royal residence. It features electricity, running water, and working elevators, but perhaps most impressive of all is the house’s spellbinding Edwardian library, which includes more than three hundred miniature books.¹

Throughout 2024, Royal Collection Trust² will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and its remarkable library at Windsor Castle.

The literary culture of the 1920s is captured through miniature books by the era’s foremost writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Vita Sackville-West, A. A. Milne and Thomas Hardy.³

20 New Tiny Books

Today 20 new tiny manuscripts have been penned and decorated by hand by leading writers and illustrators to establish a modern-day miniature library Each manuscript, measuring just 4.5cm high, has been hand-bound with unique covers by leading designer-bookbinders.

Contributors to the Modern-Day Miniature Library⁴ are:

• Queen Camilla- Her Majesty The Queen, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House: foreword, bound by Glenn Bartley, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle

• Simon Armitage, There was a steep grass bank then a field, bound by Matthew Stockl, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle

• Alan Bennett, The Mantelpiece, bound by Andreas Maroulis, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle

• Malorie Blackman, A Message to Jessica, bound by Bayntun-Riviere. Illustrations by Elizabeth Mira Morrison

• Lucy Caldwell, Intimacies, bound by Gillian Stewart, Juju Books. Illustrations by Orla Routh (age 5 ¾)

• Joseph Coelho, An Abecedarius of the Very Teeny: and other poems, bound by Matthew Stockl, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle

• Imtiaz Dharker, The Welcome, bound by Flora Ginn

• Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, The Gruffalo, bound by Glenn Bartley, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle.

• Bernardine Evaristo, The African Origins of the United Kingdom, bound by Sue Doggett

• Sebastian Faulks, Music for a Dolls’ House, 1924–2024, bound by Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe

• Philippa Gregory, Richard my Richard: a play, bound by Stuart Brockman, Brockman Bookbinders

• Robert Hardman, The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, 6.V.2023, bound by Ted Bennett. Illustrations by Phoebe Hardman (age 14)

• Anthony Horowitz, A Tiny Ghost Story, bound by Angela James

• Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, bound by Hannah Brown

• Sir Ben Okri, Poems, bound by Rachel Ward-Sale, Bookbinders of Lewes

• Tom Parker Bowles, A Recipe Fit for a Queen, bound by Andreas Maroulis, Royal Bindery, Windsor Castle

• Elif Shafak, Aisha woke up from troubled dreams, bound by Haein Song

• Sir Tom Stoppard, Kolya’s Glove, bound by Lester Capon

• Sarah Waters, Underhand House: part one, bound by Christopher Shaw

• A. N. Wilson, The Residents: a poem, bound by Peter Jones

• Dame Jacqueline Wilson, The House Mouse / translated from Mouse Squeaks, bound by Eri Funazaki

And what of Architect and Designer: Sir Edwin Lutyens?

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869 – 1944)

Sir Edwin Luytens supervised construction of Queen Mary's Dolls' House.

He also designed the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Anglo-Boer War Memorial, Victory Square in Vancouver and many other buildings. Lutyens played an instrumental role in designing and building New Delhi, which would later on serve as the seat of the Government of India.⁵ There is a gallery of the work of Lutyens at Wikipedia.

Writing of the Dolls’ House in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians James Bryan noted:

Free from the practical constraints of full-scale architecture, enhanced by the contributions of hundreds of skilled collaborators, and sanctioned as a patriotic campaign, the Dolls’ House provided Lutyens the ideal opportunity to create a perfect world that bore his own personal stamp, filled with astoundingly accurate details that satisfied his perfectionist desires. As a chance to involve many of his closest friends, indulge in his own sense of humor, and include furniture closely identified with himself, the Dolls’ House offered him an ideal commission, a charming alternative to his beleaguered professional and private life. True to scale, realistically rendered, and functioning just as it should, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House represented a profoundly convincing virtual reality into which Lutyens could escape from the present.⁶

Brief Video about the Library in the Dolls’ House

1. Elizabeth Clark Ashby. (2024). The Miniature Library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. University of Chicago Press.

2. The Royal Collection Trust, est 1993, ensures it is subject to proper custodial control maintained and conserved to the highest possible standards , is presented and interpreted so as to enhance public appreciation and understanding.

3. Historic Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House Library Celebrates its Centenary. Fine Books & Collections, January 24, 2024.

4. Queen Camilla and Leading Authors Create Miniature Library to Celebrate Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House Centenary. Fine Books and Collections, February 1, 2024.

5. Hussey, Christopher (1989) [1950]. The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club. See also Lutyens' Delhi - Wikipedia

6. Bryan, James E. “Sir Edwin Lutyens and Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 82, no. 3 (2023): 294–313.